Medication
by shybookworm18
Summary: Hanako forgets her anxiety medication and Lilly has to comfort her. I guess it's kind of fluff?


Hanako woke up late one Wednesday after a restless, sleepless night, and immediately headed to her sock drawer, where she kept her anxiety medication. However, the small prescription bottle was empty. _Damn._ She had forgotten to get another bottle from the nurse the day before, and now she was facing a tough decision. Would she go to nurse and be late to class, or would she go to class and do without medication until after class?

Sighing, she headed to the nurse's office, only to find a small line of students waiting outside the door. Hanako frowned in annoyance, and turned to go to class. She could feel her thoughts twisting and turning inside her mind, now tainted by her comorbid anxiety and depression. She got to class about ten minutes late, but she knew she would not be chastised for her tardiness and made a beeline for her seat in the back of the class. Not many people paid attention to her, it wasn't too out of place for Hanako to be late., or even absent.

She spent the class doodling absentmindedly in her notebook and ignoring the teacher. Mutou never called on her to answer questions, anyway. Hanako looked down at her notebook near the end of class and was surprised to see she had been drawing a house on fire in the snowy woods. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene, biting her lip anxiously. _Did I do this?_ She wondered, not at all referring to the picture.

_ "Yes, you did,"_ whispered a small voice in her head. Hanako froze in her seat, gripping her pencil so hard her knuckles turned white. No one noticed her, everyone working on the problems Mutou gave them. _If I ignore the voice, it'll go away eventually…Right? _

_ "No, I'll never leave,"_ hissed the voice malevolently. She squeezed her eyes shut tight as she concentrated hard on blocking out these awful thoughts. Despite her best efforts, the voice continued to talk, becoming more and more maliciously gleeful.

_ "You killed them both…" _it whispered breathily. _"If you hadn't been so afraid of the dark…If you were never born…You shouldn't be alive…Who else are you going to hurt…?" _

At this last question, Hanako's eyes welled up with tears, and she found herself bolting out of the classroom door. Her classmates stared questioningly after her. They had rarely seen Hanako just run out of class like that, and they turned their inquisitive gaze to Mutou, as though searching him for an answer. When he shook his head and went back to teaching, all of the students' face fell in disappointment, but pursued the issue no further.

Hanako was running to the classroom she had always occupied with Lilly during lunch, not thinking about what she was doing. The classroom was as vacant as it always was, and she gave a small sigh of relief. She needed to be alone, to confront this voice, to prove it wrong.

_ "How can you? I'm always right," _it cooed, challenging her to a battle of wits. She hesitated, scared of the voice. She couldn't let it control her forever, could she? Today was the day she would fight for her freedom from these horrible thoughts. Breathing in deeply, Hanako wondered how she would go about this.

"Leave me alone," she whispered miserably, "Please…Go away…"

_ "Please go away," _mocked the voice in singsong. _"It'll take more than that to get me out, sweetheart." _

"I said, GET OUT!" Hanako yelled over the voice, as if being loud could drown out the thoughts. "Leave me **alone**! Get **out of my head**, and **never** come back! Do you hear me?!" She sank into a chair shakily, tears flowing down her cheeks unchecked.

"Hanako, is that you?" asked a soft spoken, yet concerned, voice from the doorway. "Are…Are you alright? I heard from Hisao that you ran out of class…"

"Y-Yeah…" Hanako admitted, now ashamed of her irrational behavior in the classroom. "Lilly…I-I…didn't…take my medication…this morning…"

Lilly walked over to her friend, using her cane for navigation. "Oh, Hanako…Is that what's wrong?" She placed a hand on the top of Hanako's head to discern her location, and leaned over to hug her tightly. "Don't listen to the voice…You're so much better than it…" Her heart twisted as she remembered the first time she was around when Hanako had forgotten to take her pills.

"What if I hurt you, too? I-I shouldn't be alive," Hanako countered, still crying. Lilly only held her tighter, and stroked her hair soothingly.

"But you **are** alive, and that's all that matters," Lilly said firmly, never losing the gentle tone to her voice. "You haven't hurt anyone, Hanako. It was an accident. No one's at fault."

"L-Lilly…" She wrapped both of her arms around the taller girl's waist, pulling her closer. The blonde smiled, and rubbed the other girl's back. "W-Will you go to the nurse with m-me?" Hanako whispered hoarsely.

Lilly smiled, and kissed Hanako's forehead lightly. "Yes, I will."


End file.
